02/06/2006

This year, film aficionados have another good reason to attend the Bellaria Film Festival – Doc Preview (June 1-5). Tomorrow, the 24th edition of the festival of Italian and international documentaries will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Nanni Moretti's debut film, Io Sono un autarchico ( I Am Self-Sufficient).

The director will attend the event, along with cast members Fabio Traversa and Paolo Zaccagnini and soundtrack composer Franco Piersanti, Moretti’s long-time collaborator who also wrote the music for The Caiman.

Io sono un autarchico was self-produced and filmed in Super 8, a precedent-setting method of filmmaking at the time, about which writer Alberto Moravia said: "The comical nestles in the story’s folds like corrosive rust". The film will be screened in Bellaria in 16 mm, followed by a discussion on how to make independent films today with little money.

Bellaria offers other attractions as well, such as the festival’s three competitions, preview screenings and retrospectives. Twelve documentaries released in theatres will compete for the Prix Casa Rossa and 16 titles will compete in the "Preview Docs" (Anteprimadoc) section. Also, for the first time, a themed competition (this year entitled "April 9", the date of the Italian elections) will show a 150-second documentary made on a mobile phone.

The festival’s international section – organised in collaboration with satellite channel Cult – will focus on one of the most popular trends in contemporary documentaries, the 'private diary' film. "Diaries and Family Movies" will present a wide range of family portraits, biographies and autobiographies, as well as reflections on the 20th century through home movies.

The ten films presented in the preview screenings include such well- known names as Atom Egoyan, the Armenian/Canadian director searching for the roots of Arsinée Khanjian, his wife and muse; and France's Alain Cavalier who visits intimate and painful areas of memory.

(Translated from Italian)